pher ventures to introduce, prefacing them by one which has already appeared in print.

"Of Mr. Drew's personal character it is not easy to speak too highly. He was not puffed up by the success which crowned his unassisted efforts in the pursuit of letters; and, though his superiority of mind was easily discernible in his conversation, yet he was exceedingly unassuming and unostentatious. His piety, like his habits generally, was not showy, but it was consistent. He was a real Christian philosopher. His understanding was of an elevated order. His mind was richly endowed by nature, and it was highly cultivated by diligent study, and by unwearied assiduity; so that his society was always a luxury both to the literate and the illiterate, to the scholar and to the Christian. His philosophy and his piety bore immediately and equally on the happiness of life and the daily habits of mankind; and they were equally free from the pedantry of human learning, and from the solemn and disgusting farce of a religious austerity. In the decease of Adam Clarke, and Richard Watson, and Samuel Drew, the Methodist connexion has lost three of its brightest luminaries. They have shone a while together in the church below, and they have set nearly together; but they are only set to rise again, where suns and stars shall set no more.

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In my interviews with Mr. Drew," observes a gentleman with whom he was acquainted in London, "I have had frequent opportunities of admiring his masterly mind, and the facility with which he could * Christian Advocate, April 1, 1833,

enter into the most abstract speculations of moral philosophy and metaphysics; so much so that I have always considered him as the Locke of the nineteenth century. I remember one particular instance in which I consulted him on a proposed Essay on Human Motives,' when he at once entered on the inquiry, and, by a train of the most luminous and convincing arguments, proved the difficulty of doing the subject justice, owing to the inconsistencies and anomalies by which it was surrounded. I have often since regretted that I did not commit his valuable observations to writing; since, from this omission, they have wholly escaped my memory. On every occasion I found him willing to open the stores of his mind for my assistance; and to his kindness I owe much valuable information on subjects of moral philosophy."

"The longer," says the Rev. Dr. Townley, "I was honoured with Mr. Drew's friendship, the more I admired him. His vigour and grasp of intellect were united with such christian simplicity and genuine piety as placed him high in the scale of intelligent beings; whilst his singular modesty, and cheerfulness of disposition, joined to his exhaustless fund of anecdote and interesting information, rendered him a delightful friend and companion."

Dr. Olinthus Gregory, whose discrimination will scarcely be questioned, does not, indeed, specify particulars, but sums up his opinion of Mr. Drew in these words: "He was a man whose character exhibited an extraordinary union of the finest intellectual and moral attributes of our nature, and whose

name, talents, and labours, must be long held in high veneration."

Davies Gilbert, Esq., in reply to the biographer's application for the loan of any letters of Mr. D.'s writing, says, "I shall be happy to do every thing in my power to assist you in a work for commemorating one who has done so much honour to our country, and who has been styled the English Plato.”

It would be easy to quote letters of indiscriminate praise from individuals little known; but this would neither add to Mr. Drew's reputation, nor enable the reader to form a correct estimate of his talents. One of these laudatory epistles, now before the writer, by an amusing ellipsis, addresses Mr. Drew as " Author of the Immortality of the Soul and Resurrection of the Body." The same attribute of Deity was ascribed to him in a public printed notice, in one of the northern counties, announcing that a sermon was to be preached by him on the anniversary of a charitable institution.*

We close this section with two letters of Mr. Drew to the daughters of his friend Dr. Adam Clarke. One

* Mr. Drew once related, in his naturally humorous manner, that, while sitting in a friend's house, in a considerable town in Devonshire, his attention was arrested by the voice of the town crier in the street, giving notice, with his usual formality, that "Mr. Drew, from Cornwall, author of the mortality and immorality of the soul, will preach this evening in the Methodist chapel." With him it was the occasion of a smile; but the rest of the company felt excessively mortified at the strange misapprehension of their civic orator.

of these letters is the last he ever wrote, except on personal topics; and both will probably be esteemed a pleasing and valuable illustration of his intellectual and religious character.

"38, Newgate-Street, London, "Dec. 15th, 1831.

"No, no, my dear friend, I have not forgotten you; nor am I altogether chargeable with that negligence with which I imagine you have accused me. I must, however, acknowledge, that appearances are against me; for, on opening your letter, since I began this, I am startled with its date, Nov. 10th, which is now more than a month since, and therefore, perhaps, it will be rather imprudent for me to say any thing more on this subject. I was glad to learn from your letter, that you reached your home in safety, and found all your family well. Health is an invaluable blessing, for the loss of which no worldly good can make us an adequate compensation. May this inestimable blessing continue to you, and every member of your family.

In taking a survey of life and its vicissitudes, we cannot avoid concluding, that the economy of God, in the moral government of the world, is involved in impenetrable shadows, and encircled with clouds which nothing but the light of eternity can dispel. A conviction, however, that we see but in part, and know but in part; that causes sometimes appear without their effects, and, not unfrequently, effects without their causes; will reconcile us to the gloomy dispensations of Divine Providence, by furnishing us with an assurance of another, and a better world.' In our present state, unmingled gratification cannot be our lot; nor, if it were attainable, would it be congenial to the physical constitution of man, either mental or corporeal. Nature requires a vicissitude of seasons; vegetation and animal nature demand repose; and all our enjoyments derive a more acute

relish from occasional interruptions, and the reverses to which we are exposed: nor can we, my friend, on this ground, presume to impeach the goodness of God. We learn, in the school of adversity, many valuable lessons, which prosperity could never teach; and are directed, by what we sometimes endure, to weigh anchor, and look beyond this inclement clime, to some harbour in which tempests will not beat, nor oceans roar.' If nothing but enjoyment were allotted us here, we should be ready to say, 'Master, it is good for us to be here,' and, pleased with our situation, forget that we are on a journey to the abodes of immortality! Were human nature unpolluted by sin, uninterrupted enjoyment might suit its character: this must now be reserved for a state from which moral evil shall be for ever excluded.

*

"But why, my friend, should you be surprised at any of the events of this life, when you look around on the world in which we live? When the enemies of Daniel sought occasion against him, they turned his piety into an offence, and procured for him a den of lions!

"But my paper admonishes me that I have only just room to desire my kind remembrance to Mr. Rowley, and to assure his wife, that a letter from her will always be highly acceptable to her sincere friend, and old acquaintance,

"Mrs. Rowley, Worcester."

"SAMUEL DREW."

"MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,

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It has very generally been thought, and, perhaps, with much reason, that the primary spring of action in Deity is benevolence; and, as a natural consequence, those among his intelligent creatures bear the strongest resemblance to Him,